His dad is Spurs' team doctor and mother is former E-N columnist.

Marine Lance Cpl. Benjamin Whetstone Schmidt, 24, who died on the eve of today’s 10th anniversary of the start of the Afghan war, was the son of Becky Whetstone and Dr. David Schmidt, team physician for the Spurs.

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A Marine Corps sniper from San Antonio, the son of a former newspaper columnist and the team doctor for the Spurs, died Thursday in Afghanistan.

Lance Cpl. Benjamin Whetstone Schmidt, 24, who died on the eve of today’s 10th anniversary of the start of the Afghan war, was the son of Becky Whetstone and Dr. David Schmidt, team physician for the Spurs.

Whetstone described her son, who attended Alamo Heights High School, and played football there, as a charismatic, charming young man who hoped to complete his military service in May.

“The sky was the limit for this man. He was special,” said Whetstone, a former advice columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and former wife of U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez.

No official details of his death were available, but Schmidt died from a gunshot wound to the head, his mother said.

He’d done a four-month tour of Afghanistan about two years ago, and started his second deployment in early September.

He was in his fourth year with the Marines, and hoped to start a new life, possibly going into politics, she said. He loved history and also considered becoming a professor of military history.

“At first, he had a passion for the military. But over time, he decided he didn’t like it, and didn’t like the policies of the war,” his mother said. “He had never been interested in politics before, but that changed in Afghanistan.”

Schmidt had fallen in love for the first time with a “beautiful young lady” in California, she said, speaking by phone from her hometown of Little Rock, Ark., where she was surrounded by family members late Thursday.

“We’re all crushed tonight,” Whetstone said. “I’m trying to wrap my head around all of this.”

Besides his parents, Schmidt’s immediate family included a sister, Casey, 21.

His mother said Schmidt, the 21st San Antonian to die serving in Afghanistan since 2001, wanted to be buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

“We talked long about those kinds of things before he left,” she said.